INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS (pdf)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Scope

MEDITERRANEAN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES is a multidisciplinary platform for the related scientific areas of agriculture and life sciences. Therefore, the journal primarily publishes original research articles and accepts a limited number of invited reviews in agricultural biotechnology, agricultural economics, agricultural machinery, animal husbandry, bioenergy, biostatistics and genetics, farm structure and irrigation, field crops, food science and technology, horticulture, landscape and nature conservation, natural resources, plant protection, soil science and plant nutrition.

General rules

Manuscripts within the scope of MEDITERRANEAN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES can be submitted. The submitted manuscript must be unpublished, must not be simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere, nor can the copyright be transferred somewhere else. Responsibility for the work published in this journal remains with the author(s). Moreover, the author(s) must comply with the ethical rules of science and scientific publications (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and Committee on Publication Ethics). The journal is not responsible for these issues.

Manuscript submission

The manuscripts should be submitted to the journal by using online system: www.dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/mediterranean. A copy of the "Copyright Transfer Agreement" signed by all authors who contributed to the manuscript should be submitted by the corresponding author. Those manuscripts requiring an Ethics Committee Report should be supplied a copy of the report by the Ethics Committee. Ethics Committee Report which is the name of the board, date and number of approval, etc. information should be specified in the manuscript (on the Manuscript Cover Page and Material-Method). A plagiarism document is requested from the authors during the first submission.

Review process, proof and publishing

The manuscript submitted to the journal is subject to preliminary assessment by the Editorial Board. The Board has the right to decline the manuscript without initiating the peer review process in the event the manuscript does not meet the journal’s criteria.
Manuscripts that meet the basic requirements of the journal are sent to three referees for review by experts in the particular field of science.
If all or a majority of the reviewers do not find the manuscript suitable for publication, the author is informed and documents are not returned.
Should the manuscript as is be found suitable for publication by reviewers; the author is informed of the final decision.
Should the manuscript is found publishable but requires revision as suggested by the review team; the areas where revisions are required are sent to the author with the referee's suggestions. The author is expected to return the corrected manuscript, or a letter of rebuttal within thirty days, including the last revised version of the manuscript and correction list sent to Editor. Should the author(s) do not accept the reasons for the revision, they are required to present scientific evidence and record the sources giving reason for this rejection in the letter of rebuttal. The Editorial Board takes the final decision by taking the referee reports into account and the compliance with the requirements for correction and the authors are notified of the final decision for publication.
Before publishing, the proof of the accepted manuscript is sent to the corresponding author for a final check. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected final proof within 10 days. All authors can access their article on the web page of the journal (www.dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/mediterranean).

MEDITERRANEAN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCESis free of charge.

Manuscript preparation guidelines

Manuscript submitted to the journal should consist of main two parts: the coverpage and the manuscript.
1.The coverpage: Should contain the title, names of the author(s) and addresses including the corresponding author’s name and full contact details in addition the author(s) must contain the ORCID number(s), as well as declarations.
2. Manuscript: Manuscripts should be prepared on A4-size paper in 12 point, Times New Roman font, double line spaced, leaving 3 cm blank spaces on all four margins of each page. Each page of the manuscript and each line on page should be numbered.
Copyright Transfer Agreement: Should also be sent after being signed by all the authors during the first submission.
The manuscript should not be longer than 16 pages, double line spaced, including the "References" section (excluding any figures and tables). The information (name and title) of the author(s) should not be given in the article. A total of Tables or Figures should not be more than 8 in the manuscript, and must have the following sections:
Title: Must be short and inclusive, not to exceed 15 words, and the first letter of the first word to be written in uppercase and rest in lowercase letters, in bold.
Abstract: The abstract should not exceed 250 words, and it should summarize the objective of the study, the methods employed and the results.
Keywords: A maximum of 5 keywords, directly related to the subject matter and not employed in the title, should be recorded directly below the abstract.
Introduction: In this section, the subject of the study should be summarized, previous studies directly related to the study should be evaluated with the current knowledge of the subject, and the issues associated with production of the information needed are highlighted. Finally, the objective of the study should be clearly and explicitly stated. Section titles within the manuscript: except for the "References" all the main and sub-titles should be numbered. The first letters of the first words in the titles should be written in capital letters. Main titles should be written in bold and the sub-titles in italics.
Material and methods: In this section, all the materials employed in the study, the methods used, criteria evaluated, sampling methods applied, experimental design with statistical analysis and the confidence limits should be clearly explained. In addition, information regarding the permit (name of the board, date and number no of approval) of the studies requiring Ethics Committee permit should be provided in this section (Method).
Results: In this section the findings of the study should be presented clearly and explicitly with the help of figures, tables, and statistical analysis. Duplication of data presented in the Figures and Tables should be avoided, and the most appropriate tool should be employed.
Discussion and Conclusion: The findings of the study should be discussed with the results of previous studies, in terms of their similarity and contrast, and information gap filled by the study should be emphasized. Finally, conclusions and recommendations should be given. The manuscript layout of this section can be entitled "Results and Discussion" and / or "Conclusions" depending on author(s) preference.
For the reviews, the author(s) can make appropriate title arrangements.
Acknowledgement: People who contribute to the manuscript and/or the study and the funding agency (project numbers, if any) must be specified.
References: In the text, "the author's surname and the year" method should be used for identification of references. A reference identified by means of an author’s surname should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. For identification of references provided by two authors, “and” should be used between the surnames of authors. When there are more than two authors, only the first author’s surname should be mentioned, followed by ‘et al.’. In the event that an author cited has had two or more works published in the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lower case letter like ‘a’ and ‘b’ after the date to distinguish between the works. When more than one reference is given at the end of a sentence, the references should be chronologically ordered, those of same date in alphabetical order.

The Endnote file for reference citation format for our journal can be found here.

Examples:

Burton (1947), Sayan and Karaguzel (2010), Keeve et al. (2000), (van Harten 2002), (Karaguzel and Altan 1995), (Burton 1947; Keeve et al. 2000; Yilmaz 2004a, b; Karaguzel 2005, 2006; Gulsen et al. 2010; Sayan ve Karaguzel 2010).
References should be listed at the end of the manuscript in alphabetical order in the References section. The original language of reference should be employed and journal’s name should not be abbreviated. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references they provide.
Examples:
Journal:
Karagüzel O (2003) Farklı tuz kaynak ve konsantrasyonlarının Güney Anadolu doğal Lupinusvarius’larının çimlenme özelliklerine etkisi. Akdeniz Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi Dergisi 16: 211-220.
Keeve R, Loupser HL, Kruger GHJ (2000) Effect of temperature and photoperiod on days to flowering, yield and yield components of Lupinusalbus (L.) under field conditions. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science 184: 187-196.
Book:
Taiz L, Zeiger E (2002) Plant Physiology. 3rd Edition, Sinauer Associates, Massachusetts.
Book chapter:
Van HartenAM (2002) Mutation breeding of vegetatively propagated ornamentals. In: Vainstein A (Ed), Breeding for ornamentals: Classical and Molecular Approaches. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 105-127.
Institution publications with unknown author name(s):
TSI (2005) Agricultural Structure.T.C. Prime Ministry State Institute of Statistics, Publication No. 1579, Ankara.
DOI and received information from the internet:
Gulsen O, Kaymak S, Ozongun S, Uzun A (2010) Genetic analysis of Turkish apple germplasm using peroxidase gene-based markers. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2010.04.023.
FAO (2010) Statistical database.http://faostat.fao.org/site/339/default.aspx. Accessed 27 July, 2010.
Theses:
Sever Mutlu S (2009) Warm-season turfgrass species: Adaptation, drought resistance and response to trinexapac-ethyl application. PhD Thesis, The University of Nebraska, Nebraska.
Girmen B (2004) Gazipaşa yöresinde doğal yayılış gösteren hayıtların (Vitexagnus-castus L.) seleksiyonu ve çoğaltılabilme olanakları. Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Akdeniz Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Antalya.
Full-text congress/symposium book:
Hawkes JG (1998) Current status of genetic diversity in the world. In: Zencirci N, Kaya Z, Anikster Y, Adams WT (Eds), The Proceedings of International Symposium on In Stu Conservation of Plant Genetic Diversity. CRIFC, Ankara, Turkey, pp. 1-4.
Kesik T (2000) Weed infestation and yield of onion and carrot under no-tillage cultivation using four crops. In: 11th International Conference on Weed Biology. Dijon, France, pp. 437–444.
Figures and tables: In submitted manuscripts all photographs, graphics, figures, diagrams and the like must be named as "Figure", and lists of numerical values as "Table". All figures and tables should be numbered and placed at the end of the manuscript. The font of the letters within Figures and Tables used should be no larger than 8 points. Figure and table widths should be 8 cm or 17 cm and, if necessary, dimensions of up to 17x23 cm. The images should be in JPG format with 600 dpi resolution and should be informative in explaining the results. The authors must check the printing quality of the figures and should use high quality figures suitable for printing. Use of vertical lines in the tables is unacceptable, statistical significance should be stated using P values as much as possible, or using the "*" symbols for which description should be given. Small case lettering should be used for statistical groupings, and the statistical comparison method and significance level specified. Table and figure captions and descriptions should be short, concise, and descriptive. Abbreviations should be explained immediately if used within the Figures and tables. Those images composed of pieces should be grouped and converted into high-quality TIF format.
Units: For manuscripts SI (System International d'Units) unit system is used. In units, "/" should not be used and there should be a space between the units (for example: 5.6 kg ha-1, instead of 5.6 kg/ha; 18.9 g cm-3, instead of 18.9 g/cm3; 1.8 µmol s-1 m-2, instead of 1.8 µmol/s/m2).
Abbreviations and symbols: Abbreviations should not be used in the manuscript title or in the subtitles. The necessary abbreviations at their first mention should be given in parentheses. Universal rules must be followed in the use of abbreviations and symbols.
Latin names and chemicals: The authority should not be used in the manuscript title when Latin names are used. The authority should be given when the Latin names are first used in the abstract and the text. For example: "Lupinusvarius (L.) is ....", "L. varius ... grown in the.. " Latin names should be written in italics. The trade mark of chemicals used in the studies should not be given unless it is absolutely necessary to do so.
Formulas: In manuscripts, formulas should be called "Equation", numbered as necessary, the numbers next to the formulas leaning right shown in brackets and the equations should be fitted in a single line (double-column, 8 cm), if possible.
The author (s) is encouraged to visit the web site (www.dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/mediterranean) to see the latest issue of the journal.